On Saturday evening, Film Independent revealed the winners for the 2016 Indie Spirit Awards, the much cooler cousin that everyone wishes the Oscars would take some notes from for future reference. Much like last year, one of the Best Picture nominees for the Academy Awards ended up taking the top prize with Spotlight winning Best Feature, not to mention a prize for the film’s director Tom McCarthy, who also got a prize along with Josh Singer for the film’s script. Could that be good news for some Oscar love tomorrow night? Only time will tell.

Get the rest of the 2016 Independent Spirit Award winners after the jump. Read More »

The 88th annual Academy Awards are this Sunday and this looks to be one of the most contentious ceremonies in years. There are no clear frontrunners in more than a few categories and many of the major nominees have as many detractors as they do boosters. For those who take an interest in awards season, it’s a rollercoaster. A glorious, insane, and frequently infuriating rollercoaster.

And while we here at /Film are not professional awards prognosticators, we are going to dive into this race head-on like the spirited amateurs that we are. We have put aside what we want to win and and have started focusing on what we think will win (which is easier said than done, because we’re team Mad Mad: Fury Road around these parts). We’re going to predict this year’s winners – and whoever gets the most right is going to win a shiny non-prize.

The Critics’ Choice Awards don’t always reflect what eventually goes down at the Academy Awards, but they reflect it just often enough to go under the microscope of hungry awards season analysts. If this year’s winners do predict the big winners at the Oscars next month, it’s awfully hard to argue with these picks. Mad Max: Fury Road swept through the awards, snatching technical wins left and right. However, Spotlight nabbed a handful of top prizes, including Best Picture.

Let’s dive into some minor analysis before we get to the complete list of winners.

Mad Max: Fury Road basically dominated ourtop10listsfor2015, and we at /Film were hardly alone in loving it. The National Board of Review deemed it the best film of the year, and filmmakers as different as Quentin Tarantino and John Waters named it one of their favorites, too. It’s even earned nominations from the SAG, the PGA, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes — a rare feat for a blockbuster action sequel. Even so, all the critical adoration in the world can’t guarantee Mad Max: Fury Road a shot in the Best Picture Oscar race. At this point, it’s still far from a shoo-in for the category, and (let’s be real) stands almost no chance of taking home the prize itself.

All this praise can, however, win Mad Max: Fury Road the Golden Tomato Award for the best reviewed movie of 2015. As you’ve probably deduced from the name, these award are given out by the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Besides Mad Max, Inside Out and Room have also emerged as some of the most highly praised films of the year, while Master of None and Better Call Saul were two of the best loved titles on the TV side. After the jump, find out what the other best reviewed movies of 2015 are, and see George Miller and Pete Docter‘s (adorable) official responses to their big win. Read More »

You know the drill. 2015 had plenty of great movies hit the big screen, and it was pretty difficult to whittle this list down to what you’ll see below. Surely your favorite movies are not the same as mine. My list is by no means meant to be definitive, especially since there are some movies I’ve heard great things about but just haven’t seen yet (my apologies to Carol and The Revenant). This is a collection of my personal Top 10 Movies of 2015, the ones that made me laugh really hard, made me cry or just hit all the right buttons. So let’s get to it. Read More »

The National Board of Review doesn’t often predict which film will win big at the Academy Awards, but its year-end awards frequently align with films that ultimately score big nominations. That’s why their selection of Mad Max: Fury Road as the best film of 2015 can’t help but feel like a big deal. Since the year 2000, only two of NBR’s picks for best film of the year (2014’s A Most Violent Year and 2000’s Quills) haven’t gone on to compete for the top prize at the Oscars, so you have to wonder if the passionate groundswell of critical support for George Miller‘s visceral masterpiece will take it where few action blockbusters have gone before: the Best Picture race.

Check out the full list of National Board of Review winners after the jump.

Thanks to the magic of Thanksgiving, this week is a little shorter than all the rest, leaving us free to stuff our faces full of turkey and enjoy plenty of good movies. And since it’s a holiday weekend, you’ll probably be looking to escape the house for a few hours just so you don’t have to hear your family argue about politics. Or maybe you want to get everyone out of the house so you can enjoy a movie as a family.

Well, we’ve got you covered for a variety of cinematic occasions with a list of 28 movies to watch this Thanksgiving, and some of them you can even enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Read More »

The first big hits are starting to emerge from this fall’s festivals, and one early favorite is Room. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and based on the book by Emma Donoghue, the drama stars Brie Larson as a young woman who’s been kept captive in a single room for years. In there with her is her 5-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who’s never seen the outside world. Watch the Room trailer after the jump. Read More »